Friday, June 21, 2013

slice-and-bake brown butter cookies with chocolate chunks and pecans

for father's day this year, we made cookies as gifts for our parents. i mean really, who doesn't want to receive a bunch of cookies stacked up on top of each other in a cute bag tied up with string? (i wish i would have taken a picture of them all wrapped up. the packages really were cute.)

so, for our father's day gift cookies we incorporated brown butter and pecans into our cookies. we also replaced traditional chocolate chips with large chocolate chunks.

instead of scooping out the cookie dough onto the cookie sheet like normal, we wrapped the cookie dough up in parchment paper and refrigerated it for a little while. once it was cool, we pulled our huge cookie dough burrito out of the fridge and sliced it into disks. voila! slice-and-bake cookies.

the cookies were tender, delicious, and not too sweet. the brown butter and the tad of molasses added a great depth to the flavor of the cookies.

there were chocolate chunks and bits of pecans in every bite too. yum!

directions:
to brown the butter: in a sauce pan, melt 1/2 cup (1 stick) of the butter over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. once the butter starts to bubble and foam up, watch in very closely. as soon as the butter begins to turn a deep golden brown color, remove the pan from the heat and carefully pour the browned butter into a glass bowl. allow the butter to cool (about 15 minutes).

in the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the remaining 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes). add the vanilla and molasses. beat well to incorporate. once cooled, pour the browned butter into the batter along with the granulated sugar. beat for 2-3 minutes. add the egg and egg yolk. beat well to incorporate. sift the flour and baking soda into a bowl to remove any lumps. gradually add the sifted dry ingredients into the batter. beat until just incorporated. stir in the chopped pecans and the chocolate chunks. scoop the cookie dough onto a sheet of parchment paper and roll the dough into a long log. wrap the dough in the parchment paper and refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 30 minutes.

preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator and allow it to rest for several minutes before slicing it into disks. place the sliced cookie dough disks on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. bake for 12-14 minutes, until the cookies are golden brown. once baked, allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling.